The Culture Map

Trust is like insurance—it’s an investment you need to make up front, before the need arises.

When interacting with someone from another culture, try to watch more, listen more, and speak less.

Unless we know how to decode other cultures and avoid easy-to-fall-into cultural traps, we are easy prey to misunderstanding, needless conflict, and ultimate failure.

The way we are conditioned to see the world in our own culture seems so completely obvious and commonplace that it is difficult to image that another culture might do things differently. It is only when you start to identify what is typical in your culture but different from others, that you can begin to open a dialogue of sharing, learning, and ultimately understanding.

Cultural patterns of behavior and belief frequently impact our perceptions (what we see), cognitions (what we think), and actions (what we do).

Many well-intentioned people don’t educate themselves about cultural differences because they believe that if they focus on individual differences, that will be enough.